Pass 100,000 Podcast Downloads in 5 Easy Steps!

Hey friend! Callin’ all my podcasters!

Today I am doing a deep dive on GROWING YOUR PODCAST. I am going step by step to explain how you can pass 100,000 Podcast Downloads. This is not only based on how I’ve done it, but also how I’ve helped my students do it.

If you are thinking of starting a podcast, already have one, or want yours to go next level – this episode is an absolute must. Starting my podcast in 2018 was something God asked me to do in a dream. I grabbed my $20 mic, plugged it in and started. It was messy, awkward, and little all over the place… but obedience breeds miracles.

Almost 500,000 downloads later I sit in awe of how God’s hand has been on this show since episode 1. How he divinely orchestrated my content, guests, clients, courses, slow seasons, and ultimately – the floodgate bursting open.

As I look back on this surreal journey, I uncovered these five things that I am certain you need in order to scale and impact more people. When you have clarity, long form content that transforms people (for free), and solutions that solve all their problems — Brace Yourself. Your breakthrough is just around the corner.

I know you’re gonna love this one. Grab a notebook. Let’s grow, girl.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00)
Hey friends in today’s episode, we are going to be going through five ways to get your first 100,000 Podcast Downloads. These are five things I specifically did. I still do, and that have worked not just for me, but for hundreds and hundreds of my Podcast Pro University students, and ultimately my Podcast To Profit students who really take these five things, and we go all in. I know you’re going to love these five tips, these hacks to really intentionally growing your show and doing it the right way for the long game. Cause y’all know that’s what I’m all about. You’re going to love it.

(00:53)
Hey Stef, this is Kristi Veitenheimer. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you. Back in late November, early December, I remember sitting outside of a burger joint, listening to episode number 224, “Get Unstuck Sis, How to Let God Take the Wheel So You Can Take Action.” I’m not sure how I found the podcast, but I just remember sitting outside of that burger joint crying, listening to the podcast and how it basically changed my life from that point forward.

(02:25)
Since then, between your podcast and your Podcast Pro University course, and now the Podcast Profit mastermind coaching group, I have found so much clarity and confidence and I’m so very hopeful for this journey that God has put me on. Thank you so much for reminding me that God has got to be the CEO of this business. I’m just really looking to a bright future ahead.

(03:02)
Man, if y’all are anything like Kristi, having that moment, that point in time, where you go: there is more here, there is something I am missing. There is a next level to either what I should be doing or what I am doing that I need to scale up and sitting there wondering how? How do I make this a reality? How do I break through the glass ceilings?

(03:29)
If you’re anything like Kristi, she is not afraid to stand up, say yes and invest in herself to get the solutions, mentorship, accountability, and programs and coaching to get her to the other side. As a graduate of Podcast to Profit. Kristi has done that. And so much more. Her podcast Simplicity for Solopreneurs is doing incredibly well. She is movin’ and groovin’ creating her customer and courses and she is just rockin and rollin. And I am so proud of her.

(04:02)
If you are ready to say yes to taking your show to the next level, I invite you into the next class of Podcast to Profit. This is for you. If you have a podcast and you are ready to go all in. You are like, I am doing this. I am going to make sure this is my year, for my show to rank on the charts and to get seen to be in all the search results. I want this show to be my evergreen funnel into future products, courses, and or coaching. And you want my business model.

(04:40)
Podcast to Profit is going to get you there 90 days, all in, 20 women, full immersion, my team, office hours with my team, my support power coaching with me every other week training. It is fire. I’m telling you go to podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. Read all about it. Get your application. So you might want to run, not walk podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. I’ll meet you inside. All right? All right, let’s go.

(05:11)
How to get your first 100,000 Podcast Downloads? Number one, you need to have extraordinary clarity, C-L-A-R-I-T-Y! and a niche. If you start a show and it’s for everybody and it’s on all the things and you’re teaching on your dogs and your shoes and what you eat and what you love. It’s not going to hit home for anyone until, well, ever really. What are the shows that you listen to?

(05:48)
Let’s start there. Are they pastors who are specifically talking about the Bible or prayer? Are you listening to a health podcast, specifically teaches on health and wellness or listening to a business podcast? Like what are you listening to? Because I think that really leaves you clues and kind of proves my point that you can’t just talk about everything and expect your show to blow up. Now, now that being said, once you’ve earned a stripe sister friend, and you’ve done a niche show for long enough, people will come just because of you, but you kind of have to work your way up to that point.

(06:30)
You know what I mean? Like Rachel Hollis or Jenna or Joe Rogan or whoevs like that’s in the big seats. I’m not saying anything good or bad about any of them. It’s just that, they could talk about anything and people would listen because they’re here for the person. They have that publicity and that notoriety behind them. So we don’t have that.

(06:52)
When we start out, when we have a podcast, we only have what we’ve done, what we stand for, who we are. And we have to figure out when we’ve walked through what we’ve walked through, how that then becomes a testimony into the trainings, teachings and things you are here to do. Your calling work then becomes your purpose. Work then becomes your podcast and your message. So, number one, you must have extraordinary clarity and a niche. If you don’t have clarity yet, and you already have a podcast, it is not too late for you girl.

(07:27)
Okay? It’s all right. What I want you to do is I want you to stop. Not like stop your podcast, but slow your roll, go and grab, Clarify Your Calling. It goes through this entire process. What are you doing? What is your message? Title, tagline, description, clarity, purpose work. I bring you in. We rein it in so that you have one focus with three pillars, and I help you do that. Strategically. There are formulas.

(07:59)
You’re going to print out all the workbooks. It is baller. Okay. Clarifyyourcallingcourse.com. Number two, your podcasts in order to hit a hundred thousand downloads must have stellar SEO and keywords embedded in the show, okay? In the titles, descriptions, etc. What does that mean, Stef? You said SEO and you lost me. It is basically all words that your people Google. If you don’t know who your avatar is, please see item number one, clarity and a niche. Go take Clarify Your Calling, okay?

(08:37)
And if you know who that is, then you should know what they’re searching for. You have to get so good at thinking about the things that they are struggling with. Your podcast is not for you. This show is fun for me, but it’s not for me. It’s for you. I, you guys are sitting over there behind your mics thinking, man, how do I go next level with this thing?

(09:01)
How do I get my first 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 Podcast Downloads on the show so that I can really blow this thing up so it can become a funnel. This is how I created this show for you. I titled it in such a way that when you Google, how to get my first hundred thousand downloads or whatnot, whatever, I ended up titling this, it’s going to be found in the search because I’m embedding search terms, keywords and SEO, straight up into the title.

(09:31)
The best way you can do this is to get a list. Sit down with a pen and a sheet of paper and just go crazy writing down all the things your Lola, your avatar is Googling surrounding solving their problems, their pain points, their struggles. And those are the words you’re going to want to use. Now, if you want help on this, if you want my brain on your stuff in Podcast To Profit, we go through titling multiple times. I teach you guys the psychology of SEO. I teach you how to do it, where it goes, meta-tags all of it.

(10:05)
That’s included in a podcast to profit mastermind. For those of you who are going to be taking that with me. Woo! I’m so excited. If you haven’t got your app in, like I said, in the beginning of the show podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. 20 spots. When they’re gone, they’re gone.

(10:21)
Number three, you have to have great content. You can have the prettiest channel art in the world, which that should be a bonus here. Number six, I’m just going to bonus you, which is please don’t mess around with your art. Okay guys, look, if there was one thing I want you to spend money on, it’s your art. It really, really matters. It’s the cover of your book. Okay. Ale.merino@gmail.com. There you go.

(10:50)
Back to number three, great content. So you can have the prettiest art. You can have the best SEO in the world, the best branding pit mix. You can be just killing it with all of the visual stuff. And then someone hops on into that area episode, and it’s not great content. You’re either all over the place or you’re really insecure, or, I mean, even the audio can be a little rough guys, but the content, the content has to be good.

Speaker 3: (11:24)
You have to be able to help someone solve their problem. That’s what they’re there for. So ask yourself if I’m just rambling on, can I get, can I stop that? If you are not sure what to talk about, can you do that market research a little bit deeper into what your person actually needs? Maybe it’s the computer freaking you out. Can you walk around with a phone and talk into the phone voice memo instead? Can you get an editor?

(11:54)
Maybe you are a little “ummy um, um, um, um, um, um, uh, uh.” Y’all don’t realize how much you say, “um,” you know. Until you podcast. Okay. Don’t you guys be judgy-Judy’s over there judging us on the ums because when you start podcasting, you’re going to see. And I often 90% of my shows are unedited. I think I’ve done a pretty good job getting them down to a minimum. But the point is, is your content amazing to the best of your ability?

(12:36)
Are you pouring out your heart and soul and teaching and training and inspiring based on what they actually need? What does your person want from you? If you are a health podcast, give them the tacticals you guys, you do not need to be afraid of giving it all away. That’s the point? Give it away because then they trust you. They get a transformation, they subscribe, they come back, they trust you. They say, take my money. I want to do the things with you because your free stuff is so phenomenal. Your content has got to be great.

(13:11)
Number four, consistency. How many of you started a show? And then you went MIA. You’re like, wow. The podcast doesn’t make me money, so I’m going to get distracted. I’m going to go over here. And I’m going to clubhouse for a hot minute. And then we’ll come over here. I’m going to do some reels for a minute. Oops. I should be podcasting. I know. Look it’s okay. It’s all fine. But here’s the truth. The only thing that you should be focusing on to grow a massive organic engaged online audience is your show.

(13:48)
That’s all you gotta do, but you do have to be consistent. You have to show up every single week, every single week, one episode at a minimum. Y’all I mean, I would love to see you guys do two, but one is fine, but don’t miss that because when you go MIA, there’s someone else to fill your spot. Everybody who’s on the podcast platform has a problem that they’re there looking up, people aren’t on that platform to hang out like social media or to push their own stuff.

(14:20)
They are on the app to learn. What a better opportunity for us to get in front of our people, solve their problems and pull them into our “funnel,” which is just the show. It’s Hi, welcome to the show P.S. I sell this thing. That’s it. That’s my whole funnel. Like it’s literally that simple. I know we have this tendency to want to complicate everything. And we think there has to be some shine. And me too, believe me. I recently tried to get into some shiny stuff and I’m like, why am I doing that?

(14:55)
This works. I show up. I’m consistent with great content. I use SEO and keyword driven titles. I’m extraordinarily clear on my content, niche and avatar. And I go, and not only does it explode the show, but explodes the sales. I just tell you guys about what I sell right here on the podcast. So I don’t think that we need to reinvent the wheel here. Let’s get back. Let’s get back to brass tacks. That was fun. So number four is being consistent. Please be consistent.

(15:29)
One of my hacks here is to batch content when you’re feeling good. This is my third episode today. My kids are back in school and I apparently don’t know what to do with myself. So I just record podcasts. Like it’s my job or something. This is my third one. I’m still going strong. But I’m about to go on vacation. I’m about to relaunch Podcast to Profit. So my life is about to get kind of busy. It’s great to have this backlog of podcasts that you can pull from that you batched out when you were feeling great. When you had high energy, when you had a lot of stuff to say, so batch out some episodes.

(16:04)
I love to have a minimum of five episodes at any given time that I can pull from because you guys never know. Maybe you just don’t feel like it that week, or maybe life gets crazy, or maybe you have too many clients. What a great problem to have. And you want to just pull from your batched up episodes. Great! You have that in your pocket. Please take the time to have a few episodes that you can lean on.

(16:33)
Last but not least in order to get your show to your first five-hundy downloads– it’s visibility. You can have a podcast and this one actually, you don’t have to have, but it will get you there faster. When you have, so you are pouring out your heart and soul. The SEO is working for you. Word of mouth is working for you. Yay. And you are working for you by being consistent.

(17:01)
Your art is working for you because you guys are not going to skimp on amazing channel art, right? Wink, wink. But why not have some visibility work for you? What is visibility? Well, visibility means you can promote your show on social, on an email list if you have one, on Pinterest, which is one of my favorites. I have a Pinterest master course on my website. If you guys are interested or doing massive visibility campaign, in essence, where you go and you are guest spotting on other people’s podcasts.

(17:35)
I did that for my whole first year of podcasting. My goal was to get on one show a week, which I almost did. I was on 45 podcasts my first year podcasting. And if you are to ask someone how found me the answer would be either I Googled something and your show came up, thank you, SEO and keywords, or B. I heard you on so-and-so’s show or see someone told me about you. Okay?

(18:03)
That is visibility, and visibility is awesome because it expedites the growth without money. You don’t have to spend money on advertising. I actually prefer that you don’t. I prefer that you spend money on good art and a good microphone and playing with your children, go to the park, spend some money on snow cones and the zoo or something amazing like that. And just do this the right way. Just do the work.

(18:32)
I didn’t get my first a 100,000 Podcast Downloads overnight. It took months and months and months. I didn’t even know it was over six months. To be honest with you. When I had an audience, I had already been a full-time entrepreneur for five or six years. When I started this show, I had super fans and it still took a while. I did not ever give up though, because I knew if I just keep going and I keep plugging in this mic, I’m going to get there. I’m going to, I’m gonna get there. I’m gonna get there.

(19:05)
I knew it. This was the answer for me. I knew I didn’t want to blog and I didn’t want to YouTube. I didn’t want to be on video all the time, didn’t want to chase the new shiny social platforms, and I wanted to delete social media, which I do. Thank you. And amen. I just wanted to sit here behind this mic. Y’all in my PJ’s with my slippers on currently with a La Croix and a protein shake next to me and my puppy, and record and pour out into all of you what I know and what I stand for and what I can teach you.

(19:45)
And that’s what I want you to do. So if you do not give up, don’t you ever give up in order to get your a hundred thousand, you can’t give up, right? But you also need number one: clarity in a niche. If you don’t have it, clarifyyourcallingcourse.com. Number two, SEO and keyword-driven titles and taglines, and a strategy there that I teach you extensively in Podcast to Profit, my mastermind for podcasters.

(20:21)
Please come apply podcasttoprofitmastermind.com. Number three, you have to have great content. I also teach in Podcast to Profit. Number four, consistency. I can teach you that, Boo Boo. You have got a plan. It in be dedicated to this dream. You have to show up until and you, ah, man, you don’t get to give up on your dream because your dream is ultimately what leads you to fulfillment of God’s purpose over your life. And if you’re here and you’re doing this and you already have a show, I don’t think you did that on accident.

(21:01)
I think you did it on purpose, with a purpose, for a purpose, and you just have to step into it. You have to let go of any limiting beliefs, any fears that you have. I mean, y’all, it takes a lot to get vulnerable here for the whole world to hear and to share these stories and to share some of the stuff I’ve shared. But the great news is that someone else out there needs to hear your story or training, your motivation, whatever you are, your awkwardness, whatever you are. You are incredibly special in your own way.

(21:38)
There is someone created just for you that’s going to listen, and you’re going to change their life. That’s worth it. So worth it. Keep going, girl. And number five, the last one is visibility. And I completely teach you guys this times two in the Podcast to Profit mastermind program. We go through how to do podcast pitching. I give you all my scripts, how I’ve gotten on shows with 40 million downloads. It’s nuts.

(22:06)
How I partner up with people who have high visibility. I teach you all how to use Pinterest. I teach you all how to get seen, share your stuff without being overwhelmed. We do back office systems. We just, all the things you guys. Podcast to Profit is epic. If you are a podcaster, you need it in your life. All right? So those are my five tips for you. And then my bonus tip, tip number six was to not skimp on the channel art. Please get professional channel art.

(22:38)
I used to say it was fine to make your own because I had made my own. And then I saw the difference in my downloads in people, in being able to get the high visibility podcasts and all of that stuff, summits, public speaking, all of it. It’s all linked up to the “cover of your book,” which is really the podcast art. Please, if you don’t have professional art, I would say, go ahead and invest in that as soon as possible. I recommend Ale, my graphic designer, she’s phenomenal. She’s very gifted.

(23:14)
She’s worked with hundreds and hundreds of my clients. You can trust her with your art, ale.merino@gmail.com. All right, guys, love you. I’ll see you back here real soon. God bless, love and God’s light…Stef.